


Poison Pen

by acme146



Series: Fading Scars [21]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Daughter Relationship, Insecurity, Multi, Polyamorous Character, Polyamorous Relationships, Rita Skeeter is Horrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 03:06:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12739743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acme146/pseuds/acme146
Summary: Lily Luna is ecstatic to be with her lovers. The morning paper, however, reminds her that not everyone understands polyamory. Her dad helps her through it.





	Poison Pen

When Lily came down for breakfast the first morning of Easter break, her dad was sitting at the table.

“Hello Li-Lu.”

“Where’s Mum?”

“Still asleep. I think she has a bit of a cold, and she wants to try to sleep it off.”

“Okay.” Lily reached for the paper, but Dad pulled it back.

“Can I…have the paper?”

Her Dad looked uncharacteristically serious. “Not right away. Lily, have you told anyone that Danny has joined you and Leila and Tilly?”

Lily shrugged. “It’s not a secret. We’ve been together two weeks, and we all kissed goodbye at the train station. Why?”

“So it wasn’t her sneaking, then.” Harry pursed his lips.

“What do you mean?”

 Her dad hesitated, and then turned over the ‘Arts and Life’ section of the paper.

            Lily’s stomach plummeted. There was a picture of her and her three lovers, kissing each other, and the headline was ‘Greedy Girl—Lily Potter’s Lust.’

 “What?” Lily took the paper and tried to read it. Phrases leapt out at her: ‘Promiscuous Potter’, ‘Can’t seem to get enough’, ‘looking for attention’.

She put it down, sickened.

“Sweetheart?” Her dad said gently.

“It’s…that’s not fair.”

“Come here.” Lily let her father pull her into his arms and sit her on his lap. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”            

“I’m not…it wasn’t even my idea in the first place!” Though she’d gone along headlong, of course. She loved Leila, loved Tilly, loved Danny…loved them to pieces.

“I know. And your lovers know that too. And we all know how much you adore each other, and that it’s a healthy relationship.”

“Who wrote—oh. Rita Skeeter.”

“Yes. That utter cow—sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“She’s the one that writes all those gossip pieces, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Somehow she’s stayed on at the _Daily Prophet._ Much to your mother’s chagrin.”

Lily flipped the paper over. “How could she write that?”

“I don’t know, Li-Lu.” Her Dad kissed her head. “When I was your age I thought she was absolutely heartless, and all she cared about was selling a story, no matter how false it was. Now I don’t know. I think she’s unhappy and she likes making other people feel upset too. And she actually does have some skill with finding facts, although I think that it has more to do with her complete lack of ethics.”         

“Wait a minute. Isn’t she an Animagus?”

“...Who told you that?”

“Nobody.”

“Ron, for God’s sake…”

“It wasn’t Uncle Ron! It was Aunt Hermione…talking to Uncle Ron.”

Harry laughed. “Well, she was the one who had her in a jar.”

“…Wait, what?”

“Your Aunt Hermione is a force to be reckoned with. She figured out that Rita Skeeter had to have an Animagus form that was small enough to spy on people, which is how she got so much of her information. So she caught her in her beetle form, and trapped her in a jar, and stopped her from writing for a year, otherwise she would tell the Ministry about her being an Animagus.”

“I love Aunt Hermione.”

“She’s brilliant, isn’t she?” Dad smiled at her. “Li-lu, please don’t worry about it. I’m honestly surprised she’s left our family mostly alone, but I suspect your Mum might have something to do with that.”

“Probably. Mum does that.”

“The thing to remember, Lily, is that facts can be twisted to suit any story. Look at what she discovered about Dumbledore. The facts were right, but she looked at them wrong.”

Lily nodded.

“I often found,” Dad continued, “that the parts that were the worst had some truth to them. Or that…well, that I worried was true.”

Lily bit her lip.

“Sweetheart, look at me.” Dad met her eyes. “You’re not greedy, you just love differently. And so do the people you’re in love with. Being polyamorous—that’s the word, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not understood very well, and I think you’re having some trouble with it. That’s natural. Relationships are always tricky at first. Your Mum and I had some things to sort out, and I imagine it must be harder with four of you.”

“I don’t mind the work.”

“That’s grand. Don’t listen to her. In a couple of weeks she’ll move on. If not,” and her dad looked very grim for a second, “I’ll step in. You’re still at school, and you’re my daughter. I don’t want to let her set a precedent.”

Lily twined her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Dad. Now can I see the rest of the paper?”

“Why are you so interested?”

“I want to read Aunt Luna’s article about her last trip.”

“Oh, is that coming out today?”

“She said it would be.” Lily flipped through the pages. “Look, here it is!”

**Author's Note:**

> Unfortunately, not everyone in the wizarding world is as accepting as the Fading Scars troupe. Luckily, they have each other :)  
> Cheers,  
> Acme


End file.
